You’re strolling through a colorful, town square in central Mexico, chatting with
the locals. Well … sort of. You and your avatar amigos are conversing in Spanish,
but you’re meeting in a virtual environment called Second Life®. And your excursion
is part of a language class at Columbus State.

Instructor Melissa Logue uses Second Life as a way to engage Spanish 103 students
and offer them unlimited practice opportunities. “This is a hybrid class which meets
just once a week on campus,” explains Logue. “Much coursework is completed outside
of class and online; Second Life allows students to travel as far with the language
as they want to.”

“Students can teleport their avatars to any number of virtual historical, social and
recreational sites,” reports Logue. “Once ‘inworld,’ they are immersed in the local
culture and can text chat or communicate with Spanish-speaking avatars using a mike.
Students are polishing their language skills with minimal stress and maximum enjoyment,”
says Logue.

“I hold office hours in SL, too, so students can ask questions and we can converse
in real time, rather than by e-mail,” Logue adds. “Columbus State purchased an island
in Second Life, with its own SLurl, which makes connecting with students super easy
and super convenient.”

Students couldn’t agree more.

Elizabeth Do says creating her avatar and learning to navigate in Second Life was
a quick process, almost like playing a video game. “Anyone can master the basics in
an hour or two,” she says. “My avatar traveled virtually anywhere I wanted, and, as
this alter ego, I took more risks with the language than in class,” says Elizabeth.
She also appreciated being able to review for a test one-on-one with Logue via SL
office hours, reporting “awesome immediate feedback!”

Another student, Shadd Watson, teleported into Second Life almost daily. “I found
myself fast-friending folks all over Spain and Latin America,” he says. Shadd’s Second
Life contacts actually redesigned his avatar, making him “way cooler.” The individuals
Shadd met were flattered he was studying their language and have stayed in contact
in Spanish via Second Life. The future physician claims that “even though it’s a virtual
world, Second Life made Spanish come to life and made learning it so much more fun.”

Chrystal Hall, who lived briefly in Mexico, had heard of Second Life but never tried
it. Her avatar found her way to a language institute in Mexico where Chrystal received
six free lessons from actual instructors there. “It was funky going to class in a
‘foreign country’ while sitting at home in my pajamas,” notes Chrystal. “The graphics
are so vibrant and the locations so real that I really felt like I was salsa dancing
in Colombia, riding a train on the beaches of Jalisco, Mexico, and swaying in a hammock
in a colorful courtyard in Oaxaca.”

The class culminated with oral exams in Second Life. In the guise of their avatars,
students participated in a virtual job interview in Spanish. Logue wished she could
have hired them all!